There’s no doubt that securing a training budget can be tough and getting buy-in is key to getting your budget secured. All managers and staff see the benefits of training but often for Management, devoting funds to training can seem a very indirect means of getting a return on investment.
Not only should you show the powers that be how training can positively impact the staff, the culture, Customers and Clients, but also that training can save time and money. This must be key in how you present your information. While training can reduce costs, prevent PR mishaps and add to the efficiency and equity of an organisation, evidencing this can be difficult.
Here are 5 clear ways to prove to your managers that training is worth it and can help to secure your budget.
Cost reductions
Anyone would be hard-pressed to state training doesn’t reduce costs but showing the stats is imperative and will gain the confidence of the board. How to do this? Start with data.
One way to evidence this is by stating the operational costs that come with current training and the potential savings that can be made. We live in a virtual world and many would say there’s no reason to have people attending events in this format anymore. A training budget shouldn’t be an endless list of Flight costs, Accommodation, Transport, and lunching receipts.
Start by documenting costs spent on previous and current training. Travel costs, hiring of venues, and sourcing the right training and instructors often take up substantial portions of a training budget – including time spent searching for these. State the facts with data, facts and figures and show your alternative. The Kirkpatrick model is a good place to start.
An interactive online training system or App, particularly for compliance, key training, processes, as well as COVID procedures can ensure that all staff are trained on the need-to-know quite easily in an online and interactive manner.
One report suggested that 42% of major Learning companies believed that there had been an increase in revenue due to the online learning mode. Using Learning Management Systems and managing such tasks online can induce significant cost reductions and making use of such systems can provide a much more effective alternative.
Research shows that Microlearning can be 50% more cost-effective than traditional E-learning.
RapL provides both an LMS platform to deliver microlearning but also tailor content to your organisation.
Don’t forget to highlight the value learning and development will bring to increasing sales. It is crucial to highlight both cost savings and ways revenue will increase. Whilst the finance department will be looking for cost savings, the CEO will be looking at the consistency of service, increased revenue and compliance.
People forget nearly 90% of what they have learnt within just 7 days, unless the concepts are reinforced. That’s why employees swamped with documents, presentations, and classroom sessions are not likely to learn much.
However, time constraints make it difficult to reinforce vast concepts.
What can you do instead? Arm your employees with one concept at a time. Studies show the human attention span is only 8.25 seconds, so keep your training concise.
RapL is your software for that.
Presenting to the board
Case studies and examples can be one good way in which to present negative outcomes if training is overlooked. The number one reason that boards support training initiatives is compliance. Stating its importance and reminding everyone of the importance of training can reframe attitudes. Training is important in business, but it’s always important to remind stakeholders what happens when training’s not given priority status.
No business wants to be on the receiving end of a service mistake that goes viral – plenty of companies can attest to this. Training staff minimises risk so show this with examples from within your industry if you can to make it more tangible. The repercussions for a lack of training in safety, service and other departments can be very real, nevertheless, what should always be the overriding focus when securing a budget is the data.
Support tickets
It’s been documented that $75 Billion is lost to businesses through poor customer service and 48% of customers spend more money after a positive service experience.
Putting an emphasis on training can help efficiency, and consistency and equip your staff better. This can be a persuasive argument to get buy-in from leadership, for example, support tickets from staff and clients can consume an inordinate amount of time and can also be resource-heavy. Requests can be slow to respond to, the answers can be back and forth leading to a lack of efficiency.
Showing infographics, and pie charts and visualising such statistics documenting time spent by staff on specific questions in the form of ‘tickets’ can go a long way to ensuring the budget. Time means money, make it clear. Effective and efficient training methods mean less time is spent on corrections and follow-ups.
Clarifying your objectives in terms of time-saving and enhancing the skills of staff for the betterment of the organisation, and ultimately the bottom line is sure to help your standing when pitching your budget. Prove it. Show the ‘return on time in the same way you might have the return on investment, and show where the extra resources could be channelled.
Knowledge and understanding
If staff have a good understanding of the processes and culture of an organisation, it serves everyone better. Training is integral to bottom-line success and this should be what underpins your argument throughout.
It is now much easier to collate the necessary documents and training manuals. Make them more interesting with gamification or quizzes to make them more engaging. Why not create a more accountable system with detailed metrics? There are good systems that track these statistics and give detailed analytics that tracks whether the training is hitting the mark or not. A good on-demand learning management system will help consolidate, track, and minimise costs while also creating easy access and ongoing micro-learnings.
Making a clear case to the board can strengthen your chances of securing your budget but backing it up with the right facts and figures is vital. State clearly how knowledge-giving will keep your staff engaged, and morale high and how it will ultimately impact the organisation. Managers should be able to see a clear progression and rationale.
Customer/Client satisfaction
If staff are trained (and trained well), they will gain the confidence and the skill to serve customers better. What this means is high retention rates, keeping the good clients as well as encouraging a high-quality service that they will want to come back to time and time again, putting more money into your organisation.
Stating this clearly in your presentation is key when attempting to secure a training budget. Your business spent time and money getting these customers, nurturing them through various sales and marketing funnels all the way to a personal, happy, working relationship that benefits both parties. Training plays its part and such relationships aren’t worth throwing away.
How many complaints were received and how much time was taken to achieve this? How many new staff have been onboarded? Have systems changed? These are points that can be addressed quickly in the form of efficient training and statistics and figures should back this up including how you forecast training playing a role in the business and the potential impact this can have.
What Training should be is a self-sustaining mainstay in any organisation and should feed into the organisation as a whole. To secure your budget, show the leadership group the impacts of training and detail the savings on time and money.
Stating and documenting the amount of hours and resources spent on attending seminars, training sessions, retreats, accommodation and countless other expensive exercises can help persuade. Showing alternative solutions that are more cost-effective and engaging are good can go a large way in getting the buy-in you need to secure your training budget.
By Dave Trendall
For more advice on securing your training budget talk to RapL and see how we can work together to secure your intended outcomes. Call us at our Sydney office on (02) 8667 0783 or visit our website at www.getrapl.com.
